1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer for printing a frame picture recorded in a recording medium. Further, the present invention relates to a print-order receiving apparatus for receiving a print order of a frame recorded in a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a direct printing method, which is on the road to popularization. In the direct printing method, image data recorded in a memory card by using a digital camera is directly inputted into a printer without passing through a personal computer. With respect to the printer, which is adaptable to the direct printing method, a printer body thereof is provided with a card reader and a communication interface as an image-data receiving unit (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 11-321029 and 2000-326565, for instance). The card reader reads the memory card. The communication interface is connected to the card reader itself and the digital camera to transfer the data.
A print operation of this kind of the direct printing method is performed by using an operation member and a display equipped on the digital camera and the printer. Basically, after loading a memory card into a card slot, a frame to be printed is designated, and then, execution of printing is instructed. In this way, an operational procedure is extremely simplified in comparison with a case in that a personal computer is used. For example, a designating operation of the frame to be printed is performed, watching an index picture of frames shown on the display. A cursor for selecting the frame is moved with a key arranged in a crisscross form, in order to select a desired frame to be designated as the print frame. In virtue of popularization of such a printer, anyone can easily enjoy printing the image, which is recorded by using the digital camera, without complicated operation.
By the way, in recent years, a memory card having high capacity is rapidly developed. It is supposed that a memory card having capacity of GB (Giga-Byte) will be generalized in the near future. In accordance with this, it becomes possible to record images of a few thousands frames in a single memory card. From among a large number of the frames recorded in such a high-capacity memory card, a specific frame is sought and is designated as the print frame. This designating operation is supposed to be troublesome, since there are so many frames. In particular, when printing is performed by the forgoing direct printing method, it is considered that the above problem is much remarkable in comparison with a case in that the personal computer is used.
When an index picture of the frames is shown on the display, it is impossible to display too many frames in one picture on condition that the respective frames are displayed so as to have an observable size. Thus, it is required that scrolling the index picture is frequently repeated in order to seek the desired frame from among a large number of the frames. Such operation may be carried out in a comparatively easy way with a personal computer, which has a mouse and a multipurpose keyboard as operational members. This is because it is possible to perform scrolling with the mouth, and it is possible to select the plural frames in block by using both of the mouth and the keyboard.
In the direct printing method, however, operational members of the printer and the digital camera must be used to carry out the operation. The operational members of the printer and the digital camera have an extremely simple structure in comparison with the mouse and the multipurpose keyboard so that operability for scrolling the picture and for selecting the frame is inferior to the personal computer. Meanwhile, the display provided on the printer and the digital camera is generally small. A picture size of the display is a few inches. When the picture size is small, visibility of the frames deteriorates. In addition, a number of the frames to be displayed within one picture decreases so that a number of the scrolling operations increases. Consequently, troublesome is further caused.